02 3G coverage.

Yesterday I used my one month early upgrade. (current phone GS2.) Picking it up Wednesday.

I am returning to iPhone in their new refresh tariff £20 a month for the phone and £17 for unlimited texts and minutes plus 1GB of data. I never really liked android or the Samsung sending it off to 02 recycle £80.

I am aware there is better deals to be had if I would of waited one month longer but I am an impatient person.

I have been with 02 four years never really had any problems with 2G but 3G is shocking unless you're in a major city it's very slow if it works at all.

Now my question is will the 3G coverage improve with an iPhone? I use sat nav when on my bike 80% of the time (phone in flack vest) I end up taking the wrong exit due to a useless signal.

If which no doubt I will be am not impressed with the 3G coverage can I simply cancel within the 14day cool off period return the phone and go else where or do I have to pay some rip off admin charge seeing as its my one month early upgrade?

Comments

O2 has the worst 3G coverage of any network. So much so Ofcom had to threaten to fine them and reduce the term of their 3G licence. They are still way behind EE and Three. Vodafone are only slightly better than O2.

Will it get better? I wouldn't hold my breath! I would talk to them about returning the phone and cancelling the contract ASAP.

Yesterday I used my one month early upgrade. (current phone GS2.) Picking it up Wednesday.

I am returning to iPhone in their new refresh tariff £20 a month for the phone and £17 for unlimited texts and minutes plus 1GB of data. I never really liked android or the Samsung sending it off to 02 recycle £80.

I am aware there is better deals to be had if I would of waited one month longer but I am an impatient person.

I have been with 02 four years never really had any problems with 2G but 3G is shocking unless you're in a major city it's very slow if it works at all.

Now my question is will the 3G coverage improve with an iPhone? I use sat nav when on my bike 80% of the time (phone in flack vest) I end up taking the wrong exit due to a useless signal.

If which no doubt I will be am not impressed with the 3G coverage can I simply cancel within the 14day cool off period return the phone and go else where or do I have to pay some rip off admin charge seeing as its my one month early upgrade?

Thanks.

AFAIK there is no 14 cooling off period on upgrades - just new connections. The 14 days is to allow you to terminate due to signal issues. As an existing customer you are deemed to already know what the signal is like so this doesn't apply.

O2 always finish top of Ofcom's customer satisfaction table. This is the precise reason why they don't care that their 3G network is garbage. i.e. Why should they bother if they keep getting good customer service scores?

Actually, I'd bet an awful lot of money (if I had an awful lot of money to burn) that the reason O2 remain top is because they offer sweeteners to keep customers happy - discounts, free bits and bobs etc.

As stated above, they have the UK's worst 3G network for coverage, and they often finish among the bottom in tests by Root Metrics.

To get decent use out of a smartphone when you're out and abou, you'd be much better off on an operator that cares about its network rather than sponsoring an arena in London or offering priority-booking for concerts.

O2 has the worst 3G coverage of any network. So much so Ofcom had to threaten to fine them and reduce the term of their 3G licence. They are still way behind EE and Three. Vodafone are only slightly better than O2.

Will it get better? I wouldn't hold my breath! I would talk to them about returning the phone and cancelling the contract ASAP.

3G coverage will be the same regardless of what phone you use.

Kind of funny you mention this. I live in the back of beyond in Northern Ireland.

I agree with mogzyboy on this. Consumers like big brands that spash their logo on sports teams and send them chocolate bars in the post. That seems to be why people love them, because O2 pile so much money into their brand.

Their customers don't read RootMetrics or research into coverage on different networks. They walk in to the big O2 store and they believe most of what the staff tell them. When they don't get 3G they just kind of look at the phone and accept it, just like we would have done 5 years ago on another network.

Three and EE customers are almost all smartphone customers they typically use an average on 1.8gigs a month. Smartphone penetration on O2 is only 48%, with average usage only 1/4 of Three's. You have to remember they are in a different market, EE and Three are in the smartphone more technologically knowledgeable market. O2 has done well, their phones work for basic data services, but nothing too advanced, perfectly good call and text service and fine if you don't have a smartphone like 1/2 of their users.

O2's problem is that their old model is a dying business model, so they know they have to start shifting data because it's massively hitting their revenues, hence the revenue losses quarter after quarter over recent years.

I have to take issue with this: From my experience, O2's 3g coverage has come on leaps and bounds over the last 18 months, largely due to 3G 900mhz deployment. From study of the coverage maps and real world experience, I think they've improved a fair bit. It's still nowhere near the likes of EE/Three though.

O2's 3g has been awful in the past, they've deserved a slating, but I think it has improved.

For my money, Vodafone currently holds the dubious record of the UK's worst 3G coverage.

This is all likely to change a lot over the next 18/24 months, as all the networks have committed to significant 3G/4G spend - and it'll be especially interesting to see how O2/Voda shape up once Conerstone is up and running (their mast sharing agreement)

For context: I have a work phone on O2 and my personal phone on Three. Three's 3g coverage is great - and generally very fast, but there are occasions inside buildings where I'll get no signal at all - whereas I'll almost always get some 2G from o2

I have to take issue with this: From my experience, O2's 3g coverage has come on leaps and bounds over the last 18 months, largely due to 3G 900mhz deployment. From study of the coverage maps and real world experience, I think they've improved a fair bit. It's still nowhere near the likes of EE/Three though.

O2's 3g has been awful in the past, they've deserved a slating, but I think it has improved.

A team full of people went on a train journey from London to Edinburgh, testing all the networks.

They were completely unable to successfully stream even a single video and only managed to download 1 file out of 10 attempts on the journey on O2. This was only weeks ago, the conclusion was that O2 and Vodafone performed very badly on rural 3G compared to EE and Three. Three by the way completed all the speedtests, but one and all the file downloads but one.

I have to take issue with this: From my experience, O2's 3g coverage has come on leaps and bounds over the last 18 months, largely due to 3G 900mhz deployment. From study of the coverage maps and real world experience, I think they've improved a fair bit. It's still nowhere near the likes of EE/Three though.

O2's 3g has been awful in the past, they've deserved a slating, but I think it has improved.

For my money, Vodafone currently holds the dubious record of the UK's worst 3G coverage.

This is all likely to change a lot over the next 18/24 months, as all the networks have committed to significant 3G/4G spend - and it'll be especially interesting to see how O2/Voda shape up once Conerstone is up and running (their mast sharing agreement)

For context: I have a work phone on O2 and my personal phone on Three. Three's 3g coverage is great - and generally very fast, but there are occasions inside buildings where I'll get no signal at all - whereas I'll almost always get some 2G from o2

Three's Indoor penetration might improve/should with 4G because of the frequency that is used 1800MHz. But than O2 2G runs on mainly 900MHz so it might not be as good still it is becoming rare I find buildings like what you describe any more on Three it used to happen a lot but since masts started getting upgraded I can normally get 1 or 2 bars now.

They were completely unable to successfully stream even a single video and only managed to download 1 file out of 10 attempts on the journey on O2. This was only weeks ago, the conclusion was that O2 and Vodafone performed very badly on rural 3G compared to EE and Three. Three by the way completed all the speedtests, but one and all the file downloads but one.

I can't argue with their results: And I certainly agree that EE/3's MBNL setup is far and away superior to Voda/O2's data offering.

My take from their analysis was that Voda handled data worst overall.

It's worth having a look at the current 3g coverage maps on o2 and vodas websites. Certainly in my part of the country, Voda's is significantly worse than o2's.

It is also worth noting that when you select 3G on O2's coverage map that is actually showing you both 2G and 3G combined. In order to just see 3G you must put in a postcode and then select mobile internet then 3G and then you'll eventually see just 3G.

Then you'll see all the no coverage areas, of course they still won't let you zoom out much without hiding the coverage so you can't see it overall.

That's only recent as well in the past year or 2. In towns you get all networks but in rural areas you will only get 3g on O2.

Interesting well MBNL are still upgrading in NI and if you can get EE 2G you should get 3G on EE/Three eventually as you obvious have either a T-Mobile or Orange 2G mast in the area. Interesting though thanks for that. I haven't been with O2 for years as it just seemed completely awful to me. Not regretted moving to Three specially since they made mast sharing deal with T-Mobile. But I can clearly see they haven't got enough presence for all.

I can agree that 02s 3G coverage needs improvment. Yet they are to start 4G in the next few months. Where I stay I can go between HSDPA to 3G. I have been to the Pitlochry area a few times in the past 2 years and they only seem to get 2g and one or two bars for signal on 02.
Even the Callander area of Scotland only has 2g on 02 and one or two bars for signal.

I don't get why people are constantly going on about O2 needing to sort 3G BEFORE working on 4G - They have already stated on numerous occasions that 3G will be rolled out in parallel to 4G using 3G900 for coverage (as it matches the propagation of the 4G800) and 3G2100 for capacity in certain areas.

Let them do what they claim they will and then feel free to have a go at the end of 2015 if the rollout is not as claimed!

As for the Beacon project that many have assumed is dead as they haven't seen any updates, it IS still rolling and gathering pace. Exactly what updates people expect to see I don't know. If you think they will post about every site that is processed you are sadly mistaken!

As for the Beacon project that many have assumed is dead as they haven't seen any updates, it IS still rolling and gathering pace. Exactly what updates people expect to see I don't know. If you think they will post about every site that is processed you are sadly mistaken!

There's been nothing mentioned for months, different to MBNL where they made some facts and figures public of how many sites, what backhaul etc.

We haven't even been given any indication of O2's launch for 4G despite them saying early summer and not launching in early summer.

I can now get O2 3g so they must have done something recently; before its 2G was rock solid and I think this is why it gets such good reviews from customers. Down here EE and Three just don't work, Vodaphone does but not great, thumbs up though for O2.